The Disability Rag...

...or, "whaddya mean there's a serious side to this blog?"

I've created a page ----> Wheels & crutches & canes, oh my..why I started all of this<---- discussing in depth my interest in Lionel Barrymore's post-1938 (i.e., post-wheelchair) work, wherein I break down the first Kildare/Gillespie film with Barrymore and Lew Ayres, Young Dr. Kildare, 1938.  I am actually quite engaged in researching LB's post-1938 films for their practical presentation of disabled reality, at least in terms of wheelchair use.  It's not really super complicated, but I am a serious researcher and I like to present things as closely to the known facts as possible. I was so trained and it's my natural inclination.  Casual tossing out of "facts" bug the crap out of me, but I can see how other blogs or articles or even books might just burn out and not bother with cross-checking what can be. In the age of google and the interwebs, it's almost criminal to present loosely-sourced stuff. Call a rumor a rumor and don't waste my time :)

But I digress! I am a great admirer of LB's skill AND of his coping with a terribly painful physical ordeal. I am calling the major issue he had aggressive rheumatoid arthritis complicated by bone injuries, based not only on observations of him in films, but also on clippings of his involvement with arthritis research.  Yes, he had other issues--several people mention he broke various bones (hip, leg, knee, etc) in his life which caused complications, and LB himself claimed to have broken the same hip twice. It's certain he used a very uncomfortable leather brace to work in at least one film that kept his hip properly in place, and he mentions pain and discomfort in letters he wrote and comments made to friends.   He worked through some awful, awful pain in his life, and he was cranky, sharp, bitter, and probably lonely many times. Chronic illness is a serious, serious pain in the ass.**

But why my interest? Why? Obviously, the man is a super-skilled actor, and I love watching his films. But since I have a frustrating, incurable pain-in-the-ass illness myself and have since I was at least 34 or so (I'm going to be 46 this year), I am fascinated by how well he chugged on and worked. Granted, I feel his frustrated assertion he had to keep working to stave off the tax man, but I feel also his determination to do what he wanted in spite of the near-constant pain.  Read the page to find out what my particular problem is, but let's just say here I'm probably a worse patient than LB claimed to be when it came to dealing with the minutiae of illness, and that's saying a lot, apparently!

I started this whole blog because my admiration for LB is so great that I thought he deserved a space of his own for me to look at his life, his films, his advocacy (quieter than one might expect), and his stubborn resilience. I appreciate it a whole lot, more in recent months after my own relapse left me limping like a drunken sailor and scrambling for mnemonics to remember things. I have similar bitter humor and super-resilience--but to be so public a persona with chronic illness that is not remotely sexy? I'm not sure about that, even though I used a cane and gimped about for a year and a half as a professor of English before I ended up in the emergency room and then a neurological suite--where I graded my students' final papers in between scans, bloodwork, and surgery. I credit my own students' resiliency in that they had zero pity for me after class one each semester, and instead just took me as I was, sometimes overtired, sometimes forgetful.

In short--neither LB nor I ever, ever intended to be a role model, a hero, or some "super-disabled" person. I declare butterflies and inane slogans anathema--not for me "I might have MS but it doesn't have me!" because you know what? It DOES. It WILL. All I can do generally is fend it off and plan on modifying a wheelchair in the future to have spiked hubs.

Do check it out if you've interest in my motivation for this blog. I promise it's not very angry and is pretty well illustrated, unlike this post! And thanks, honestly.

John Callahan, quadriplegic cartoonist and wicked wit

**Y'all need to hear me on this and believe me when I say it. PAIN IN THE ASS.

Happy World Cat Day! Or, "which cat is Lionel Barrymore at Hemingway's home?"

Lionel Barrymore loved cats--several tales by different people, including himself, attest to that. A book published in 1959, after his death, was illustrated with pencil sketches he did of one of his cats, Becky Barrymore. I, Becky Barrymore contains some unevenly rhymed and organized "cantos" but a few charming little illustrations:

Titular heroine/narrator of the tale

 

 

 

One of LB's cats, in Calabasas LA Pet Memorial park

There was also a champion cat, CH. Crown E Lionel Barrymore, a red tabby American Shorthair you can view here: Fenton Farm: Lionel Barrymore

In The House of Barrymore, Margot Peters recounts a story Whitfield Connor, who worked with LB on CBS' Hallmark Playhouse, told her. I am not sure if he had "got to know Lionel better than the rest of the cast",  but in terms of LB's cat-love, it seems apropos to LB's chronicled affection for cats, of which there were 40- or 60-some on his Chatsworth, CA ranch:
          [after Connor has told LB he was looking for a kitten for his daughter] 
          LB: "Would you be good to it?"
          Connor: "Yes sir."
          Finally one Sunday in the studio Lionel beckoned. "I think I've found a kitten for you."
          "Fine," said Connor. I can come out to Chatsworth and get it any time you say."
          "No," growled Lionel. "Kitten's got to have its shots...Shots got to be from my vet."
          [Some weeks pass, during which LB checks out the neighborhood in which the kitten would live, disappointing Connor's daughter. But then some days later he calls and is coming over with food, the kitten, a list of directions, and only THEN puts the kitten in Erin Connor's arms.]
          "What are you going to name it, honey?" asked LB
          Erin C: "Its name is Lionel."
          LB: "Honey, it's a girl cat."
          Erin C: "I don't care, its name is Lionel."
          LB: (laughing) What's its last name, honey?"
          Erin C: "Brown. Lionel Brown."
          LB: (according to Connor, angry) "But my name is Bar-r-r-a-more!"
          Eric C: (unaffected) "I know, but that's too long."
(Peters, House of Barrymore, p. 499)

Apropos of this significant day, here are some more pics of Lionel Barrymore, cat lover extraordinaire, with  a cat and/or representing his love of cats:

Dr Gillespie quite taken with a kitten!

The Washington Masquerade, 1932

 

 

 

 

 

 

 In You Can't Take it With You, a kitten is a paperweight:

 A cat also appears in LB's silent film The House of Darkness (1913):

Another cat makes for an amusing moment in Mark of the Vampire, when the sound scares the people hunting a vampire:

Annnddd... a cat appears in Lionel Barrymore's first directorial attempt, His Secret:

Upper left for kitty!

So well known was LBs love for cats, one of the Hemingway cats in Key West, FL, was named for him. Check out the whole article or the excerpt below:

KEY WEST FILLED WITH COOL CATS. Chuck Stinnett

Key West Kitties!
KEY WEST, Florida While Betty Grable dozed on the second-floor master bedroom, Lionel Barrymore crept up the outdoor steps from the basement, where he hides most of the time.

He reached the gate at the top, then paused. He wasn't sure it was safe to come out into the garden.
After a few moments, hunger got the best of him. He slipped through the gate and got a bite to eat. Then he retreated down the steps, disappearing into the gloom.

Lionel Barrymore couldn't be too careful. He never knew when Harry Truman might emerge from the shadows and pounce on him...

Key West is famous for free spirits. I did see a barefoot gray-haired hippie. I also spied two men who looked like soccer dads; they were walking down a quiet street holding hands.

Mostly we saw aging tourists.

And Lionel Barrymore.

....But many others remain. We found the mostly black Betty Grable asleep on Hemingway's massive bed, impervious to the visitors who passed by.

Our guide coaxed Lionel Barrymore, a skittish orange tiger tabby, from the basement steps with a small treat. But the cat's retreat was prudent; Harry Truman, a brutish gray tabby, was scowling nearby from atop a fence.

"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them," Hemingway famously said or wrote.

One thing Lionel Barrymore knows is to not trust Harry Truman.

(more on the Hemingway home cats:Ernest Hemingway Home)

Lionel Barrymore is a big orange tabby at the Hemingway Home, FL

 (Honestly, LB probably DIDN'T trust Hairy Truman in real life! Sam)

The job training ironic post

Today was the second day of job training in Puerto Rico  (really!), and I've been missing trolling for Lionel Barrymore info. San Juan is unbelievable and of course the ocean is lovely post meeting, but every so often I would think,  "wow...I'd like to see if I can find a copy of that Alpert pic! Maybe Jeff will find his copy of Drums of Love!" Then, we'd drink fantastic coffee and walk.

But...

Tonight I couldn't find the car in the garage. I went up, down, up...then down twice.

There it was.

On this level:

I lauuughed...

Guess you never know where you'll find one of the Boys!

Updates, etc

I've enjoyed the research for this blog, but it must needs wind down some--I'll be off next week to a conference in Puerto Rico (yes, I'm really going to a conference--with my boss!), leaving my poor Bear home with the cats and dogs.  I've added quite a few things, including a page on LB's stage performances (starting with The Jest and Macbeth), some radio moments (including John and Lionel speaking about their sister and John's Streamlined Shakespeare Macbeth and many more LB moments), and of course images, images, images!

I'm hoping to find more of LB's films to watch, with an eye to reviewing them for the blog. I'm learning so much and there's so much more to learn. Hopefully this will be enjoyable for fans of Mr. B--it's fun for me, though it's had its bittersweet moments.

I'll be sporadically online next week, but carry with me a USB drive of Mr. B's films that I may keep amused in between meetings!  Really! Have a great day/weekend!

Here are some of my favorite recent finds: 

Biograph Bulletin of this 1912 film, LB at center

With second wife Irene Fenwick, 1933

My favorite picture of the Brothers Barrymore

Mary, Ethel...Mary? Ethel II and Mary Barrymore's tragically short lives

Because it has been bugging me and many other biographer/fans of Lionel Barrymore, a man who loved kids but had no surviving children of his own, I dug a little more for information on the (at least 2) daughters he had with Doris Rankin, to whom he was married from 1904-1923.

It appears there was a child born in Paris to them, named Mary, who seemingly was born and died in 1906, the first year they were in Paris. Peters mentions the survey by Daniel Blum LB answered in "the 1950s", in which he said he and Doris had two daughters, neither of whom survived infancy. In the same bio, she says John, Lionel's nephew (I presume she means John Jr) said a daughter died in the flu epidemic of 1917-18.  With that, I set forth and starting digging--and oh, what a dig.

It is clear Ethel Barrymore II was indeed born, in Paris, in 1908 and died in 1910 in New York.  She was with Lionel and Doris when they arrived in New York August of 1909, and was about a year old, according to news accounts. I have gathered from the PHENOMENAL fultonhistory.com site various New York newspaper accounts of this period, including several which mention Ethel II's death.

What I find perhaps most sad in this is that scarcely three or so weeks later, Doris Rankin, her father McKee Rankin, and her husband Lionel Barrymore were once more performing on stage at the Alhambra theater on April 19th, 1910, as noted in the NY Evening Post of that day.

On Mary Barrymore, born in the US, I was able to find out the following:

BARRYMORE KIN DEAD

Mary Barrymore, aged one and a half

years, the infant daughter of Mr. and

Mrs.Lionel Barrymore and niece of Ethel

Barrymore, died at the family residence

in Garden City, Long Island, Monday

from pneumonia. The child had been ill

five days prior to her death. 

(excerpted from  The New York Clipper, March 21, 1917, page six, Vaudeville section, fultonhistory.com)

Mary Barrymore, daughter of Mr.

and Mrs. Lionel Barrymore, died

Monday from pneumonia at the age

of two years. Interment was made

at Philadelphia. 

(excerpted from the Hempstead Sentinel, Tuesday, March 22, 1917, fultonhistory.com) 

 

1.1 years down, 42 more to go! 1911-12 films done

I am fairly gleeful about announcing I've finished a detailed (well, I will still add more detail later) filmography for Lionel Barrymore's first two years of film work, 1911-12. It was not really overly hard,  but there were some challenges in terms of stills and casts. I left out The Miser's Heart for reasons I explain, offering some evidence for my choice. I'm quite proud to have dug up screengrabs from LBs first film,  The Battle, and to have found images with him for most of the films.

I'm not as familiar with film archives as others are, so there may be a way to see some of the films I haven't that aren't lost.  I'd quite like to see The God Within, which apparently exists,  and the one in which LB gets to play the hero as a tramp and rescue a doctor.

I'm quite impressed with the range of parts he had,  from full out lead to "man at table". His early work already demonstrates a naturalism and comfort with the new technology,  even if at times he acts a trifle "stagy". Friends, The New York Hat, and The Burglar's Dilemma show him managing the parts and blocking/movement well--he was a big guy in comparison with most of his costars, but his mild preacher helping tiny Mary Pickford in NYHat contrasts beautifully with his somewhat hulking, shy Fallon in Friends, while his older, confident  brother in TBD moves between the two. In 1913, an epically prolific year for him, he would increase his skills in front of the camera and start directing (Her Secret) and writing more short films.

In addition,  I saw an LB film I hadn't,  So Near Yet So Far, where he is in a club scene,  tuxedoed! My checklist of LB films I've seen is getting filled in nicely. I look forward to new discoveries (as well as frustrations!) in 1913.
1911-12 Films of Lionel Barrymore

Weekend Wheelchair Musings

Astute readers probably noted I mentioned I have a blog on MS. That's because I have relapsing-remitting MS, Dxed 2009. I'm probably one of the lucky ones.  Now that I think about it, in a roundabout way it led me to Lionel Barrymore's acting, so I'm quite lucky! [Note: his brother John is indirectly responsible for my grad degree...more on that later!]

In reading about LB and his chair, what I found interesting is the Kildare/Gillespie films were done so well (Bucquet directing very nicely many) the wheelchair became almost irrelevant to the plot. Now and then, we are reminded of the good Dr. Gillespie's need for it, but the doc himself is never an object of pity. We learn very quickly there's nothing to pity about Dr. G!

There are the typical "hero" disabled person moments spoken by others, as when an aside is used to "prepare" people who are about to meet Dr. G for the first time,  along the lines of "he's brilliant, but his legs are hopelessly crippled". They become fewer as the films continue.  I've seen that used in just about every film with someone in a wheelchair who has a major part.  Now,  I can see the need to establish the background story quickly,  but seemingly,  given the popularity of the films, LB was the attraction,  and the fact he was acting circles around people while IN a wheelchair meant his skill "normalized" for viewers a person in a wheelchair.

 I'm not claiming he did this all on his own, or that he even meant it to happen. He does note he's a good "jockey" in his chair and doesn't mind answering or forwarding to his chair manufacturer letters from the public about it.  Others, including Ronald Reagan,  noted the already skilled scene-stealer would use his "chromium contraption"* to great use in dominating a scene--even smacking into people's shins with the wheels. LB is absolutely masterful in the films in the way he moves his chair to emulate what he'd likely be doing on two feet. It's really astonishing.

I think without Barrymore's incredible talent, a shift in the audience's acceptance of a character (based on film gross, at least) in a wheelchair would not have happened at that time. How many actors in wheelchairs who really need them can you think of? He led the way, willingly or not, to better roles and social acceptance of wheelchair users--significant, I think, as the Second World War was going to start in 1939.  Too many people came back with orthopedic disabilities--but while they were gone fighting, one actor was rolling through an enormous number of popular films, getting audiences to ignore the chair and focus on the person. That's impressive. I think the financial success of the films also testifies to the acceptance of Dr. Gillespie and he seemed to walk-off, if you will, with just about every Kildare film. Dr. G was only ever stopped by his own exhaustion.  That I can also appreciate,  being a cantankerous,  stubborn type myself.

Intriguingly,  LB really disliked being photographed using his crutches to get around. I've only seen one pic of him using crutches outside a film. I'll likely not post it,  but I found that reluctance interesting.  When I have to use crutches or, very occasionally my wheelchair, I brace for questions and that stupid, inane "poor thing" voice. So I developed a response that, while I have yet to use it,  I think will halt any probing. When asked "what happened?" (recall my MS comes & goes, sometimes day by day), I want to reply "they never took the bullet out of my spine".  Ha!

There's a lot to ponder on this, and I still need to finish coding the Kildare/Gillespie films! I'm not only intrigued,  psyched, even inspired,  but also in awe of Lionel Barrymore for his persistence.  Seriously.  Chronic illness as he seemed to have had is a pain in the ass, a huge no-no in our world today too unless you "rise above!" it and are a "supercrip", to use a phrase used in disabled folks' writing sometimes as shorthand for "the person who lost legs/lost half a brain, etc, but rises above all and competes in the Olympics."  The most recent of that type apparently killed his girlfriend in South Africa. Yes, there's an occasional dark side to my bloggish humor.

Do I think LB would mind the bleak humor? Not at all! I'm looking forward to exploring this much more,  too. Meanwhile...thank you, Mr B.

The grand old man, Key Largo, 1948. LB's disability is used to effect in the film.

* "chromium contraption" was what LB called his chair in a neat postscript in the first Ayres/Barrymore film, Young Dr Kildare.  He and Lew Ayres appear at the end of the film as themselves. Funny bit, too.